Special election set to fill anti-abortion lawmaker's seat

[TexasTowelie]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania will hold a special election March 13 to complete the term of disgraced Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, an antiabortion lawmaker who resigned after his hometown newspaper revealed he had suggested a mistress get an abortion when they thought she might be pregnant.

Monday's announcement by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf puts the campaigns of at least nine Republican and Democratic would-be candidates into high gear to become their party's nominee. The candidates include four Republican state lawmakers and, on the Democrats side, a former federal prosecutor and the former head of the state's largest teachers union.

Murphy's last day in office was Saturday, ending a nearly 15-year run in the 18th District seat.

Following the 2000 census, state Republican lawmakers first tailored the district's boundaries for Murphy, carving it out of the shrinking population of southwestern Pennsylvania districts represented by Democrats. Murphy, then in the state Senate, ran and won the open seat in 2002, with the help of conservative Democratic voters who were accustomed to backing Republicans for president.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/congressional/20171023_ap_d9f1903e815145838dea6f38029c0611.html

[femmocrat]

1. Thanks for posting this! Here's the Governor's proclamation:

Governor Wolf Sets Special Election for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District
October 23, 2017
Harrisburg, PA – Governor Wolf today issued a Writ of Election setting a date of March 13, 2018 for a special election to fill Pennsylvania’s vacant 18th Congressional District:

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH, THE COUNTY BOARDS OF ELECTION OF THE COUNTIES OF ALLEGHENY, GREENE, WASHINGTON AND WESTMORELAND, GREETINGS:

WHEREAS, in consequence of the October 21, 2017 resignation of the Honorable Tim Murphy, who was elected a Member of the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress of the United States for the Eighteenth Congressional District of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as said district is established by law, a vacancy exists in the representation of the Commonwealth in the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Tom Wolf, Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in pursuance of the provisions of the Constitution
of the United States and of Section 627 of the Act of the June 3, 1937 (P.L. 1333, No. 320), as amended, 25 P.S. § 2777, do issue this Writ of Election commanding you to do your respective duties according to law and to hold a special election in the said Eighteenth Congressional District of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on

TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2018

[TexasTowelie]

2. You're welcome.

I hope that the voters in the 18th district turn the seat blue.

[femmocrat]

3. Yes, opportunities don't come along like this very often. nt

[Mc Mike]

4. Murphy is another one of those stolen honor guys, too.

His district came all the way up to Greentree and Castle Shannon, right on my southern doorstep in Mt Washington, at least until the last redistricting, anyhow.

I jacked up Murphy's Labor Day parade appearance in Pgh, a few years back. He never asked for my local (IBEW 5) to let him ride his convertible in our formation again. Que lastima.

My observation is that any official dem action against the repugs in my area is along sitzkrieg lines. I'd advocate distribution of flyers and posters with a big picture of dRUmp on on side, and Murphy on the other. With a statement saying "All Repugs are the Same. Vote D." But I'm just a prole.